Running head: RSVP IN READING
1. Introduction
The diffusion of personal communication devices has rendered the access
to information ubiquitous and pervasive. The growing amount of
accessible information contrasts with the tine that we have to process it.
The smaller and smaller digital supports (e.g. mobile phones, smart
watches, head mounted displays) shat we use to access information play
an important role in shaping our reading habits. I this context, alternative
methods to present textual information might become crucial to expedite
information consumption while preserving our capacity to capture the
meaning of what we read. According to Castellano and Muter (2001),
those methods include: the moving window, the times square, the line-
stepping., the sentence-by- sentence presentation, and the rapid serial
visual presentation or RSVP. Originally conceived as an experimental
paradigm for studying attentional mechanisms, the RSVP has been
proposed for the first time in the context of ‘reading in the late 50s by
Gilbert (1959) and employed for studying comprehension and processing
of written language by Forster (1970). The RSVP consists of displaying one
or more words at a time and in sequential order, thus minimizing the eye
movements generated during reading, and increasing the attentional
focus. According to Lamerie, Eyrolle. & Cellier (2008), text size,
presentation unit, visual structure, and segmentation unit ate the main
factors affecting text comprehension with RSVP. However, although in the
last 50 years many variants of RSVP have been proposed and many
studies have been Carried out, it is still difficult ta determine the ideal
presentation parameters for RSVP (Proaps & Bliss, 2014), According to
Rayner (1998), comparisons of RSVP to normal reading have revealed that
with abort sentences, results that are typical of normal reading can be
obtained as long as the rate of presentation does Dot pass a certain
threshold beyond which attentional blinks might occur (see Raymond,
Shapiro,
1. Introduction
The diffusion of personal communication devices has rendered the access
to information ubiquitous and pervasive. The growing amount of
accessible information contrasts with the tine that we have to process it.
The smaller and smaller digital supports (e.g. mobile phones, smart
watches, head mounted displays) shat we use to access information play
an important role in shaping our reading habits. I this context, alternative
methods to present textual information might become crucial to expedite
information consumption while preserving our capacity to capture the
meaning of what we read. According to Castellano and Muter (2001),
those methods include: the moving window, the times square, the line-
stepping., the sentence-by- sentence presentation, and the rapid serial
visual presentation or RSVP. Originally conceived as an experimental
paradigm for studying attentional mechanisms, the RSVP has been
proposed for the first time in the context of ‘reading in the late 50s by
Gilbert (1959) and employed for studying comprehension and processing
of written language by Forster (1970). The RSVP consists of displaying one
or more words at a time and in sequential order, thus minimizing the eye
movements generated during reading, and increasing the attentional
focus. According to Lamerie, Eyrolle. & Cellier (2008), text size,
presentation unit, visual structure, and segmentation unit ate the main
factors affecting text comprehension with RSVP. However, although in the
last 50 years many variants of RSVP have been proposed and many
studies have been Carried out, it is still difficult ta determine the ideal
presentation parameters for RSVP (Proaps & Bliss, 2014), According to
Rayner (1998), comparisons of RSVP to normal reading have revealed that
with abort sentences, results that are typical of normal reading can be
obtained as long as the rate of presentation does Dot pass a certain
threshold beyond which attentional blinks might occur (see Raymond,
Shapiro,
